Reaching a 50-year milestone is impressive in any context, but dedicating half a century to a company's mission is truly extraordinary. It reflects a deep belief in its vision, resilience through its highs and lows, and an unwavering commitment to shaping its future one day at a time.
This is the story of Tait’s one and only engineer, climber, historian, curator, and more: Ian Gardiner.
We've featured Ian a few times in recent publications and have briefly delved into his personal ventures, hobbies, and involvement with Tait. Today we wanted to give you the mère de tous or ‘mother of all’ dives into Tait history in celebration of Ian’s 50-year commitment.
Ian Gardiner’s seen every stage of the business in his 50 years at Tait. The ups, the downs, successes and failures, and through it all he believes it was, and remains, a tremendous place to work. “I built my first radio as a teenager in 1958, so radio and electronics have always been an interest,” Ian says. “Being able to work in a place with so many innovative people and terrific customer challenges and, at the same time, have a great quality of life, it’s very lucky. It is a great place to work.”
Ian’s determination to balance work and hobbies has been a constant. A lifelong climber, Ian took six years to finish his degree, taking “far too many mountaineering papers.” Several Tait people were also alpinists and that’s how Ian got a chance. “Angus did the interview. This was March 1966, and I was 23. I still had a couple of papers to finish, so he gave me a 30-hour-a-week job which meant I could complete the degree.”
The Rise and Fall of the "Old Company"
The first years of the company were full of surprises and challenges - “Angus mortgaged his house and found a place at 42 Bedford Row. He took me round there to see it and my first task in the new business was to clean out bags of old potatoes from a storage area. At that point, we were four – me and John Croft as the technicians, Angus and Charlie Parry, who was with Angus in WW2.” Among these troubling times for the business, suppliers of radio components stood by Tait, allowing it to grow into what it is today.
Firstly though, at the end of the 1960s, the staff grew to 12, with Ian and John Crosft titled the heads of Development Engineering – with Ian leading the effort to develop and build UHF base stations for the New Zealand Ministry of Works; these were the first base stations Tait had ever made.
The New Zealand Ministry of Works and Development, formerly the Department of Public Works and often referred to as the Public Works Department or PWD, was founded in 1871 and disestablished and sold off in 1988.
A photo of Ian Gardiner at his desk taken at Bedford Row – 1960s~
A Brief Adventure Across the Ditch and Home to a new Tait
In 1970, Ian served as a Chief Engineer at Plessy in Australia, developing a range of FM terminal equipment until 1974 when they closed their Melbourne based Manufacturing facility. “So, I called Angus and asked to come back, and gladly he said OK”. During his time away, Tait had grown from 4 to 12, and now to just over 100 employees – with the business having moved from Bedford Row to 79 Manchester St for Production and Engineering at 175 High Street. Ian adds, “I was a senior development engineer involved in the creation of our first FM mobile radio with the aim of exporting. I took the prototype to Brisbane for approval by the Post Officer and it was the first FM mobile approved in Australia.”
Winning Tenders for the New Zealand Government
Ian’s next role was Engineer in charge of Base Station Developments. This was around 1977, Angus learned that NZ Electricity was about to tender for new UHF equipment and one of the requirements was ‘hot standby’ -- effectively needing two bases, with one ready to take over instantly if the working one fails. Angus said, “Give us a chance. We know we can do it.” They did, but with a big condition: apart from winning the tender commercially, we would have to provide a prototype for them to test and it would have to meet all the specifications.
Continued commitment to Tait in retirement
In 2009, Ian took on a side project, planning and overseeing the creation of the Tait Museum in the 558 building. Upon retiring in 2014, he transitioned to part-time work, dedicating two mornings a week to curating and preserving the company’s history—a legacy that continues to inspire future generations of radio engineers, industry leaders, tech enthusiasts, and the proud local community.
Work-life balance has always been important, so the idea of more senior management was never attractive. “No, I was comfortable at the senior engineer level where you can work hard and enjoy it, but still have time for the other things that make life worthwhile.”
Asked to name the most important change between the early days and now, he says “We used to have to work so hard, just to get meetings. Now, we no longer must prove what we can do, what we are. They know Tait performs, that our equipment outlasts the competition and that it’s good value for money,” he says.
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